An Introduction To Clubbing In Ibiza

Ibiza has a long and colourful history and the island is steeped in culture. However it's the bussling club scene which brings in the majority of tourists and brings them back year after year. In this article we briefly introduce the Ibiza club scene and clubbing culture in Ibiza.

The clubs

Ibiza has 8 nightclubs which are regarded as superclubs. That's a lot for a tiny island, especially when you consider the whole of the uk which is infinitely larger only has a small handful of venues which could be considered superclubs.

Rather than being condensed into a single area like other popular European holiday resorts like aiya napa or kavos, ibiza's nightlife is spread across the island with Eden and Es Paradis located in the popular San Antonio resort, Pacha and El Divino in Ibiza town and the others spread across neighbouring regions. If it's your first time in Ibiza though don't worry, the clubs are landmarks an every taxi driver, local or other tourist will be able to point you in the right direction.

The first thing you'll likely notice when you get into any of the superclubs is their sheer size with capacity for thousands of people, multiple rooms and dancefloors, bars and seating areas. Get your bearings an stay together it's easy to lose your mates in these places and not find them until the end of the night.

You'll also notice that Ibiza clubs are expensive, both for entry and drinks at the bar. The entry price is by an large set by the promoters and will vary depending on the popularity of the night and the headline djs, more on that later in the parties section. The bar prices are set by the clubs themselves. They are so high for a few reasons. Firstly deman is actually pretty low for alcoholic drinks in Ibiza clubs (whereas a uk club will make the vast majority of their income from drink sales). Secondly the clubs have large overheads which you'll understand when you experience the scale and decadence of the clubs themselves.

The parties

Most parties in Ibiza clubs are organised by promoters, usually these promoters aren't associated with the clubs themselves but run the nights independently on a kind of hire arrangement.

Each year there are established parties like cream, we love space and judgement Sundays, which return to the same club, on the same night of the week, with much the same format as the previous year. New parties also start up each year and old ones die away but from year to year the same brand names tend to dominate the Ibiza party scene.

The main driving force behind an Ibiza parties ultimate success or failure is the popularity of the dj's the promoters book to headline the night. The biggest names in dance music can command 5 figure payment for a 3 hour set in Ibiza so getting the DJ right is essential for any party. This is also the reason the most bankable dj's get rebooked year after year.

In recent years entrepreneurial dj's have successfully established such a strong personal brand they can host their own parties, examples of this being Tiesto's residency at superclubs privilege and Pete Tong's popular Wonderland party at Eden in San Antonio.

Dance music has always been the most popular and iconic genre in Ibiza, dating back to the islands hippy roots through to the disco era which shaped the modern Balearic scene. Today 90% of parties in Ibiza play dance music, although within the dance genre the scene has diversified into sub genres like trance, hard house, Balearic house, electro and techno.

Despite the proliferation of dance music in Ibiza other scenes are emerging. Ibiza rocks at Ibiza rocks hotel is one such example, where indie music has gone down well with the Ibiza crowd. Urban music in the form of the uk based twice as nice brand has actually been playing in Ibiza for years, celebrating their 10th Ibiza birthday in 2009.